The seminars this summer have significantly enriched my understanding of the life of a PhD. Between the cutting edge research and the different paths these scientists took to get there, I’m beginning to see how diverse this lifestyle really is. Chris Kontos was one of many speakers this summer who spoke in a way that made his current research both easy to engage and tempting to follow up on.
His seminar was interesting for a number of reasons. He first caught my attention in the opening seconds of his talk when he told us he was the director of the MD/PhD program at Duke. As a prospective MD/PhD applicant, it was nice to hear him talk about how he balanced research and clinical work. It was especially nice hearing this from him because he’s an MD. It always reassuring to know MD’s can still dedicate a large portion of their life to research even without the PhD.
Even more interesting, I found, was the work being done in the lab he’s directing. There’s some overlap between the work he’s doing and a major component of the focus in my lab which is the human vasculature and more specifically the endothelium lining it. His lab has found that there are certain receptors-Tie 1- linked to vascular integrity and that there is some connection between eNOS, a molecule thought to regulate vasodilation, and Tie. I like that he assigned one of his PhD’s the project of characterizing a protein-Caskin 2. It paints the picture of this giant venture into the unknown-a very appealing prospect of research.
